Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 849 other followers

No, He’s Not Hitler—Yet. Trumpism is not Fascism—Yet. And while 63 MILLION AMERICANS voted for this guy, that is only 27 Percent of the voting-eligible population. There is plenty of resistance out there to make sure he doesn’t become Hitler and we don’t succumb to neo-fascism. Let’s get to work.

In a live interview with TODAY's Savannah Guthrie, Christopher Wylie, a former employee of British-based company Cambridge Analytica, says the company misused personal Facebook data of some 50 million people to help influence the 2016 presidential election. Wylie says the company met with former Trump campaign manager (and current outside adviser) Corey […]

Marine life is battling an unexpected enemy, lost fishing gear, also known as ghost gear. 705,000 tons of fishing gear are lost in the ocean every year. Mike Neill and his crew are trying to change that.

Do states have a moral right to exclude people from their territory? It might seem obvious that states do have such a right, but Sarah Fine questions this in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. This episode of Philosophy Bites was sponsored by the Examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University. You can su […]

How do I know I'm not dreaming? This sort of question has puzzled philosophers for thousands of years. Eric Schwitzgebel discusses scepticism and its history with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. This episode of Philosophy Bites was sponsored by the Examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at D […]

What is a robustly demanding good, and what has that got to do with friendship and love? Find out in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast in which Nigel Warburton interviews Princeton Professor Philip Pettit about this topic.

Philosophers talk about 'knowing how' and 'knowing what'. But what is involved in knowing a person? Katalin Farkas discusses this question with David Edmonds in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. This episode was sponsored by the Examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University.

Are human beings fundamentally different from the rest of the animal world? Can what we essentially are be captured in a biological or evolutionary description? Roger Scruton discusses the nature of human nature with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

The Hard Problem of consciousness is the difficulty of reconciling experience with materialism. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast, in conversation with Nigel Warburton, Anil Seth, a neuroscientist, explains his alternative approach to consciousness,which he labels the 'Real Problem. Anil is a Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow.

Why does apparently trivial ritual play such an important part in some ancient Chinese philosophy? Michael Puett, co-author of The Path, explains in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. This episode of Philosophy Bites was sponsored by the Examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University. You can subscribe to […]

What is Art? That's not an easy question to answer. Some philosophers even think it can't be answered. Aaron Meskin discusses this question on this episode of Aesthetics Bites. Aesthetics Bites is a podcast series of interviews with top thinkers in the philosophy of art. It is a collaboration between the London Aesthetics Forum and Philosophy Bites […]

The process of dying can be horrible for many, but is there anything bad about death itself? The obvious answer is that deprives us of something that we might otherwise have experienced. But that leads to further philosophical issues...Shelly Kagan discusses some of these with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

We certainly disagree about aesthetic judgments in a range of cases. But is anyone right? Is there no disputing about taste? Are all tastes equal? Elisabeth Schellekens Damman discusses disagreement about taste in this episode of Aesthetics Bites. Aesthetics Bites is a podcast series of interviews with top thinkers in the philosophy of art. It is a collabo […]

Cobalt used to be a byproduct of copper mining, used in everyday, boring stuff like tires and magnets. Now it's one of the most important and sought after metals on the periodic table. This has implications for big tech firms like Apple.

Now, if this were merely about teapartying Tennessee Congressman DesJarlais and his blatant hypocrisy, that would be one thing. But it is about more than that. You see, via a transcript made of a phone call, he told his mistress, a former patient, this,

You told me you’d have an abortion, and now we’re getting too far along without one…If we need to go to Atlanta, or whatever, to get this solved and get it over with so we can get on with our lives, then let’s do it.

Thanks to those who value a woman’s right to choose, the congressman’s mistress had somewhere to go to “get it over with,” should she have found herself unwilling to bring to term a reminder of the unpleasantness that is Congressman DesJarlais.

But his House voting record shows that he is willing to deprive others of the means to do what he was strongly urging his mistress to do. He voted time and again against reproductive choice, the kind of choice he was trying to exercise via rhetorically strong-arming his lady friend.

Particularly galling is DesJarlais’ vote on an amendment to the newly constituted Republican House’s very first act as a Tea Party House in February of 2009. The amendment was titled, “Prohibiting Use of Federal Funds for Planned Parenthood.” Vote Smart’s synopsis reads:

Vote to adopt an amendment to HR 1 that prohibits federal funds from being made available to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, or to any of its state or local affiliates, for any purpose.

Even though Planned Parenthood does not use federal funds for abortion services, and even though Planned Parenthood is a lifeline of hope to so many women across America, this hypocritical bastard, who impregnated a woman not his wife and then tried to bully her into an abortion, voted against funding Planned Parenthood.

Ron Powers’ bio of Twain (Mark Twain: A Life) is a great read. I spent a bit of the last couple of years re-reading Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee…, and The Gilded Age. Always a huge fan, I gained new appreciation for his remarkable talent and his (eventual) social and political courage. I appreciate those in the public eye, willing to make impactful statements for the public good even while raising the hackles of the powerful. Yes, I wish he were around today. We’d have to scoop Limbaugh into a bucket. I doubt there would be any of Romney-Ryan left to scoop.

I fixed the link to your excellent piece. I recommend, very highly, that all readers go there and understand, if they don’t already, that far from saints, our Founders could be what we would consider today to be unsavory characters.

ansonburlingame

It seems that this local Progressive blog has given up trying to defend last weeks terrible performance by Obama and returns to shots at right wing “jerks”. Good for you guys and I hope you keep it up.

I already have a McCaskill sign in my front yard, right next to one for Rommey/Ryan. I didn’;t put the last one up until after the debate however where I saw the Romney that I had previously just hoped to see.

Now this week, I HOPE Ryan asks Biden why he thinks America is NOT in decline after four years of ………! You guys finally got one number to crow about after 43 straigth months of lousy ones. Why don’t you gloat over that single number. I can’t wait to comment if you do so as well!..

Next up, I wonder if Obama is desperately working on a secret but before the election deal with Iran to establish a moritorium on weapons grade material production. I wonder if it would have the same effect as if Carter got the hostages released just before the election in 1980? Think Carter would have beaten Reagan then?

But we all know “Chicago” is now grasping at every straw they can find in these last 4 weeks. Maybe those thugs will blow up the building scheduled to hold the next presidential debate before the crowd arrives by the way. I also wonder if John Kerry is working harder now to instill the image of leadership in Obama in preparation for that next presidential debate?

Trouble is however, how does anyone instill the image of leadership into someone that has yet to lead a grade school football team or some such level of “leadership”!!!

Treeske

Anson, Just because scheming is a decades old Republican Practice, doesn’t mean everybody has that character trait! Hypocrisy is definitely a big R trait. How many Democrats do you know who run on Pro-life, against gays, family values, while living the opposite. Check the facts!

ansonburlingame

No doubt the “real” Romney is pro-life, no doubt in my mind at all. He would violate many of his basic principles of faith, his “secret faith” to agree with destroying “life as he understands it”. You know that as well as I know that.

BUT, Romney now says he will take no legal or legislative or political action during the next four years to further protect the “life as he understands it”. Such a position is SANE in my view and does not violate his “principles”.

In other words Romney is NOT sounding like Santorum or Akin or others that WOULD do all in their power to further DIVIDE America to promote their own religious views. In his “heart” Romney probably does not “like” Roe v Wade for example. But he SAYS he will do nothing about that personal dislike if he becomes president. To me that is iminently SANE, politically.

Think of it as keeping “priorities for America” straight. We have so many issues before us today that have NOTHING to do with the “right to life as someone understands it” that Romney chooses not to pick such a political fight today based on his “principles”.

Now compare that ability to prioritize with the fight that Obama picked over his “principles” on HC that outraged many in this country and divided it as much as if abortion had been the issue as our economy came down around our ears.

Which issue, the economic one or the HC one, was more important in America on Jan 20, 2012?. Go ahead and say BOTH of them were equal in importance then look around America today, a DECLINING AMERICA, in HC AND economically.

That is what happens when leaders try to “eat more than they can chew”. Prioritization is a mark of effective leadership as well as a few more things, like convinicing your opponents that your way is correct with good and reasoned debate.